Cyberbullying – a result of bad parenting

Washington: Parental behavior affects the involvement of children in cyberbullying, says a recent study. According to researchers, children who are not involved in cyberbullying are those that receive most affection from their parents and signs of encouragement of independence and good humour.

In addition, they are children who happily talk to their parents about things that interest them and worry them. Whereas, those children who have received an education based on punitive discipline (psychological control and physical or psychological punishment) tend to be more involved in cyberbullying.

The information analysed by this group of researchers also showed that when parenting practices are not very suitable, there is an increased probability that the children might be victimised or involved in the double role of aggressor/victim, while in the case of girls, when they are treated in this way, they tend to be cyber-aggressors.

As part of the study, a total of 2,060 Andalusian secondary school students participated. This educational programme, developed by Andalusian researchers, is based on the theory of behaviour according to social norms, self-regulation skills and the beliefs of the adolescents.

It consists of a complete package of strategies and resources to help teachers, which can be included in the ordinary curriculum. The findings are published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Recent studies confirm that without the intervention of teachers in class, cyberbullying increases among students. Specifically, in the article 'Asegúrate: An Intervention Program against Cyberbullying Based on Teachers' Commitment and on Design of Its Instructional Materials', the behaviour and opinions of a total of 4,779 students in 5th and 6th grade in compulsory primary and secondary education (48.9 per cent girls) are taken into account.

"The cases of online victims, online aggressors, and victims of cyberbullying goes down when interventions are made by teachers, who have had specific training and have used the Asegúrate teaching package," said Rosario del Rey, lead researcher of the study.